It's a slow week at work, so I have the pleasure to have a full week off for Thanksgiving including the weekend on either end. Yesterday I moped, finally forced/ guilted/ relented into doing a HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) workout for 14 min. 10 minutes in, I thought I was going to either pass out or throw up. I managed to attempt to do the last two exercises before I collapsed in a sad, soggy heap on the floor praying for mercy. It has been too long since I last worked out. I think the last thing I did was run the Color Run with Suz at the end of September. For the rest of the day, I continued to read A Dance with Dragons and sip whiskey.
Today, I went with Matt to BNI, a professional networking group. They are serious stuff there, but I have to say it was the liveliest, varied bunch of folks for 7am. It works well for small businesses, but there I am introducing myself as a guest and telling them... "Well, we our target market is with large entities, be that private, public, or government, where we can secure very large and multiyear contracts in landscape architecture, construction management, land surveying, and engineering services. But I do know several small land surveying firms who would greatly appreciate smaller scale business such as property surveys, as-builts, small construction management, and topographic surveys." **trying not to panic at totally not being the type of professional who could make use of this type of networking group** Quick stop by the municipal court for Matt's short hearing and then back home.
I decided I was going to look for my steam curlers, so I can figure out new, not-so-boring things to do with my hair. Looked all over and can't find them. In the process of going through all those unpacked boxes in the guest closet, I decided now would be a good time to pull out the keyboard and try to play or learn a new song. I realized I have no idea where the power cord is. So, I decided I would try to take some pictures because I haven't done that in a long time and the battery was dead (it's charging). So, I was going to make gluten-free biscotti to take with us for Thanksgiving, but I found out it was already made (where's the fun in that?!). After deciding to finish the Daenerys chapter (she finally flies on Drogon! That earned her some very much needed cool points, because for a while she was so annoying I was hoping someone would kill her off.) I decided I might try my hand at brewing. [...]
I'm going to solo brew?! I've barely paid attention to anything in the previous brews I've assisted in until we move the brew to the fermentation bucket (which, folks, was pretty much the whole process of brewing). Bottling is my favorite step, and that's the very last step. So, friends here you go what it takes to brew... in 10 steps. This particular one is going to be a Hazelnut Brown.
1. Prep Everything. Get your grains into the steeping bags. This particular recipe calls for a lot of dried malt and grain, and it took more than the one bag we have, so I also used one of our veggie bags that will serve just as well. Unfortunately, I found out later there was a dime size hole. Oye. The grains get set into steeping bags, the hops get measured and divided, and the water gets filtered (we use filtered water for each step).
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| It's hard to pour a big bag of grains into a soft mesh bag by yourself. The rim to a mason jar helps hold it open. |
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| Use a bowl under the grains to catch all the messy grain dust! |
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| That's a lot of grain and dry malt. |
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| How I recommend rinsing the grains. |
3. Rinse Grains. (Matt skips this part, but I've got nothing but time and OCD. I'm also convinced this will make my beer better than his.) Bring another pot with about a gallon of water to about 170 degrees F and use that to pour over the grain bags to rinse them. Basically we're just making more grain water, just a bit more diluted. I just now thought of a better way to do this than I did. I may have to fake a picture and pretend that this is the way I did it. Set those soggy grain bags aside and add more water to the pot until you've reached 3 gallons. Bring it to a boil. (This is easier said that done. It's frustratingly slow.. don't bother watching the pot.)
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| When we did Frau Blücher's Monster Ale (the Pumpkin Ale), I cut up two cutie pumpkins we spiced them, baked them, and then added them during the boil. |
4. Add Hops and Malt. Once you're good and boiling... FINALLY! Add in the first of the hops. We like to overdo the hops. They come in 2 oz. packages and the first few brews we used all of both kinds of hops. Now, we tone it down and put the extras in the freezer. I still used 1 oz. instead of 0.86 (there's no need to be so exact, come on, we're in the kitchen. eyeballing is A-OKAY.) Let that boil for 30 minutes, then add the second set of hops (in this case, 0.5 oz.). Let that continue to boil for 15 minutes then add in the Irish Moss (it's a white pill thing) and the bucket of liquid malt. Technically, you can add the malt at whichever point in the boil you wish. Matt said this is the first recipe he's seen that said to add it in the last few minutes. He usually adds it at the beginning of the boil. Again, it's home brew and it's experimental, and have fun with it! Speaking of, in home brewing tradition, you need to be drinking a beer while you work. It's mandatory, actually.
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| Irish Moss |
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| It's really hard to take a picture while pouring malt with one hand. |
5. Sieve, Transfer, and Cool. **One important thing to note is that once you are out of the boiling process it is very important that anything the brew touches is sanitized. You don't want bacteria... or cat hair that might be floating around for that matter, to skunk up all your efforts. We keep the sani solution in a spray bottle and a 5 gallon bucket for easy use.** This part is very critical to take care that you don't seriously hurt yourself, should you be like Matt and not want to wait for the water to stop boiling (I love you, honey!). Seriously, just let it cool for a while in the pot... there's no real hurry here, so why try to pour that much boiling water?? Of the whole process I think it is best to have 2 people for this step- it's awkward because of the weight and you really don't want to be wasting anything by letting it splash on the floor! The goal is to cool the liquid down from 200 degrees at boiling to 70 degrees so you can pitch the yeast in without toasting it (thereby undoing all the work you've just put in). Take the cleaned and sanitized 5 gallon bucket, put a bunch of ice in the bottom (we take the big auto ice bucket out of the freezer and dump the whole thing in) and put the sieve on top of the bucket. Take the 3 gallons of brew, which has hops floating in it and grain particles floating around or hidden at the bottom of the pot, and pour it into the the bucket. Home brew needs to be 5 gallons, so at that point we take the water bottles we've had in the fridge or freezer and toss them in too. This helps fill it up and cool it down.
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| Dry hops |
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| Wet hops |
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| Initial Gravity: 1.15 (this was the pumpkin ale) The Hazelnut Brown: 1.48 |
6. Check Initial Gravity and Pitch the Yeast. Using a special tool we draw up a bit of the liquid and then stick in a special thermometer looking thing that tells us what the initial gravity is. (You do this again when you go to bottle except it's called final gravity.) Once you're down to a safe temperature of 70 degrees or less toss in the yeast (we use the liquid type) and aerate it by slowing stirring from the bottom up with the big metal spoon (seriously, the spoon is 2 feet long).
7. Store and Let Thy Beer Ferment. For this particular recipe we need to let it ferment cool at 60 degrees for a week to 10 days.
8. Secondary Fermentation. This step is not necessary for every recipe. We'll transfer the fermented brew to a new bucket with some sugar and the hazelnut flavoring for it's secondary fermentation. When we did the Pineapple Wheat, we added the pineapple during this step.
9. Bottling or Kegging. The most fun step in my opinion! We've only used the corny keg once and I can't remember if the plan is for this brew to go in the keg or not. I think we are bottling the PresidentAle Honey Porter which is fermenting in the closet at this moment. When doing bottles we reuse bottles. Our friends know to save any bottles they buy at the store and give them to us instead of recycling them at the curb. We clean and sanitize them, fill them back up, and pass them back out!
This is a clip of our first bottling experience. He's
filling a grower. We learned to do it in the garage.
And got better at not making a mess...
10. Wait some more... it's got to carbonate in the bottle. Hello, fizz. About a week is good. Then, DRINK UP AND DONT FORGET TO SHARE!
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